Students tip in for sustainable future

A desire to make students aware of their future responsibilities has prompted Bunbury Primary School's ongoing commitment to recycling.

The school has been involved with a sustainable futures program and has focused on areas such as composting and recycling various items.

"The kids are really engaged with all of this learning," the school's sustainable future program coordinator Jo Parry said.

"They will be responsible for making informed decisions about what's happening in this work."

Associate principal Franca Dillon said the school's approach was "can things be reused?" and this included recycling ring pulls, ink cartridges and mobile phones.

They also have school gardens and a nature play area and Mrs Dillon said individual classes took ownership of particular aspects.

"All the kids are really involved," she said. "It's a whole school approach and everyone plays a role in the sustainability projects we do at the school."

The sustainable futures program is run by chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer and the CSIRO.

Bayer's head of sustainability, Richard Dickmann, said the program aimed to teach skills that would help students in adulthood.

"Students learn about sustainability, agriculture and climate science, and learn where their food is from and how it is grown," he said.

"Together with Bunbury Primary School and more than 400 other schools in Australia, we want to help create the next generation of scientists and leaders in agriculture and sustainability."